a bit dark

i did it. i got up, got my ass out of bed and was in line at the fairgrounds at five-o-eight this morning. really dark, but there were some lights and few people...they were busy getting breakfast burritos or something.

i spent the early morning shooting in the dark. i like the pictures. they aren't sharp as images after the sun started coming up, but i like the feel of them. messed with my camera settings to get them to look like this one.

so many cars to shoot as the morning progressed, and the weather was perfect. cold and clear. not freeze your ass off cold. waaaayyy better than the hell that is summer on that pavement.

i could have stayed all day with no complaints, except i got hungry and also needed to dump my coat in the car, probably about nine. and well, after sunrise, and the light starts getting to normal overhead light, it's probably just as good a time to leave anyway.

thing

home sick today, or i should say, at my mom's, being sick. wish i was at my own house, but my kid is living in it...but that'll change soon enough.

pooring rain outside, and i have a craving for tacos and/or carnitas...i don't know why, or how to solve this dilemma.

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i've shot this car before. always think it's a ford because of the shape of the headlights. then i post it, and people thankfully drop me a message like, "you idiot, it's a merc."

seriously, that's fine. i don't know what all the cars are, or the years, but cut me some slack, i just like to shoot them. if i get it wrong, let me know. makes it easier to find them if it's identified correctly.

needle in the haystack

saw this impala on my way out of the swap meet. i was wading my way through the sale stuff, the junkers, the beaters, the project recyclers, so many odds and ends. frequently find the occasional gem in this lot. i figure they got there too late or otherwise didn't want to pay the show price, but still wanted to be part of the pomona experience.

spotted this one from two rows away. got over to it and set up, and waited to get my shots in between other admirers of the car. it was next to a pop up, so it somewhat limited the angle--to try to not show it.

did not realize the owner was waiting to leave, until i'd already taken a few sets. so thanks for that. totally forgot to shoot the front; no matter, it's the back end of these that i like best anyway. and pinstriping was pretty cool too.

reboot

been in seattle for a week. this time a planned vacation. and it was good and needed. didn't care that it rained half the time. weather was perfect the last few days.

flight home was delayed for several hours. something about the previous flight out of lax having to have their onboard computer rebooted. at least sea-tac airport is a really nice place to kill time. lots of shops and dining to choose from. clean and modern. so why the hell is every other airport i've been to, so much better than that crap airport, lax? fix it already.

also thought how it is sort of a small death, preparing for vacation. tying up loose ends, letting things go. giving jobs away to the others. hoping they don't realize they can get by just fine without me, but that they will still be glad to have me back.

i know tomorrow will be a big pain in the ass, going back to the office. it's always the worst part of vacation, and why i put off taking one at all. time out of the office throughs me off, even if its in a good way. like being deprogrammed and being put offline. reboot.

oh, and i'm not going to bore you with my vacation pics. you can find a few on flickr or instagram, if you really must, but they don't belong here. only old car i saw all week was the tail end of a pontiac in the rain, and i didn't have a camera out, so...

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got up and went to pomona this morning, just for a few hours. easy to do. wandered around the show cars, found a few interesting cars in the sale area.

i'll put this truck up, since the owner talked to me. i liked the paint color. plain and simple.

en pointe

saw this out in the cars for sale section, as i was on my way out. nothing remarkable up front. party in the back. wonder if the drink comes with the car...

flight line

one more for the day.

i did get out to pomona yesterday, albeit, way later than planned. late enough that my better half couldn't go; had to stay home and work. yay overtime, but seriously, no weekend sucks.

got away from the show cars and wandered through the sale area. i don't think these two were for sale. caught them as the owners were dusting them off, preparing to leave. actually the only shot i have that the owner with the duster wasn't in there dusting the green car. just something you deal with shooting this stuff. not going to ask him to get out of the way, when he seemed determined to keep at it, when i was obviously taking pictures of his car. thought about posting one of those, but i like the fins on impalas, and this was the best shot anyway.

not sure why he wasn't in this shot. seems to me there was another photographer shooting from the other side. maybe he moved for that guy. whatever. i got the shot with the airplane heading to the landing field on the other side of the fence. part of the fun of being in the flight path for the airport.

niner fan

this impala was wonderful to look at, with it's high polish. spotted it driving through the lot and followed it over here by the grandstand. sun hadn't gotten up too high at that point, light was still golden.

of course, the owner was almost instantly pulling stuff from the trunk. i took a couple of shots of it before he got set up with whatever he was pulling out of the back. didn't like those shots, with the trunk up and his butt/back peeking through just a tad.

ended up stopping by again later. still intrigued by the shine of the hood, and took a few more in spite of the damn pop-up parked right up against the back. so i only have shots of the front and the side. none of the back end. oh well. at least the pop up is something other than blue.

still not early enough

got my ass out of bed at 5ish last sunday, so i could head out to the pomona fairgrounds for the car show and swap meet before the day heated up. by the time i drove over, sat in the line of cars heading up the hill, parked out in the plural zed alpha of the parking lot and walked over to the show cars by the grandstands, it was already 7:30am. sheesh.

but damn. so many cars. i got going quickly and shot a bunch before i had to take a break from the sun and have breakfast. and cold water. trying to cut back on the coca-cola. and oh how i want to have one. like all the time. probably why i'm so tired all the time now.

anyway, aside from working too much, i spent the other day just sorting through my shots. i got a lot of nice ones, which is both good and bad. i have so many i like, i can't decide what to post. 

this fleetline was actually my first shot of the day. used my old wide angle lens to start with, then switched later in the day to the new one. i think this is one of the bridge town oldies sgv cars, but i could be wrong. they were parked at this end of the grandstand, but there were a few that weren't showing any club affiliation mixed in.

i do love a nice fleetline.

gotta get there earlier next time...what's that, get up at like 3 in the morning...errrr.

blue sky

got to get to bed. it's late. dead presidents day tomorrow. only know about one car show, and probably will skip it this year. gotta do the shopping, while my better half has to go to the office. so that sucks.

here's one of the few cars that were still at pomona when i was there in january. helps narrow down choices when there aren't so many cars, right? still have to think about how you want to shoot them. the sky was cloudy, so i took lots of shots from down low. 

home james

i liked this cadillac. not sure what year. not remembering having one in my photo collection. pretty sure those aren't necessarily the original hubcaps, the paint on them is sort of suspicious.

little bit of lens flare, but that doesn't bother me that much either. not a perfect shot, but it does record the memory of the car i saw.